Timeline of incidents
This is a timeline of sexist incidents in geek communities including: * Technology industry * Free and open source software * Gaming * Comic Book Fandom * Science Fiction Fandom * ... and more See Timeline of geek feminism for the development of geek feminism itself. (Mary Gardiner explains the reason for this list in Why we document on the Geek Feminism blog.) 1973 *Lena Söderberg's photograph is first used in image processing experiments. 1982 * Custer's Revenge (rape simulation game) released 1988 * comp.women proposal 1989 * École Polytechnique massacre 2000 * Linux "need support" ad * Linux Journal blowjob ad round 1 * Perl is my bitch * Linux goth slut incident 2001 * Wives of Hackers panel * LISA hooters girls - see Randal Schwartz * Stonehenge OSCON parties (first reported incident) 2002 * F.I.R.S.T. Robotics groping incident (Technology industry & education) * Debian mencal incident: longer developer discussion of usefullness of little tools to support women in menstrual period calculation 2003 * Debconf ftp-masters talk 2004 * 2004 Debian elections * Ubuntu Warty visual theme * March: Debian IRC sexism * May (and ongoing): Ubuntero gendered name 2005 * January: Lawrence Summers sexist remarks on women in science * Debian and LinuxChix harassment by MikeeUSA begins * (approximate date) Go Daddy's advertising begins on television, with an ad featuring Candice Michelle during the Super Bowl airing in 2005 * Hostility to a GIMP bug reporter 2006 * April: ** Slashdot "OMG Ponies" April Fool's Day joke http://slashdot.org/articles/06/03/31/1644225.shtml ** RapeLay released * July ** (year unknown, could be 2004 or 2005):Harassment/groping at San Diego Comic Con] (Reported in blog post July 2011) (Comic Book Fandom) ** Catamorphism's Wikipedia RfA (Wikipedia) * August: Harlan Ellison groping Connie Willis * September: Telsa Gwynne announces the closure of her diary and her withdrawal from Open Source, due to the unpleasant environment and online harassment among other factors. * December: Acme::Playmate talk 2007 * January: ** Reiser fans harrassing women at LCA2007 ** Slender PMWiki "Female syntax" thread * March: ** Kathy Sierra incident ** Ubuntu-UK Code of Conduct incident * April: ** Web2.0 Expo Spock.com lingerie model slides * May: ** Girls suck at Python ** Launchpad users encouraged to use real names ** Mary Jane laundry statue ** Extra Action Marching Band at RailsConf 07 * August: ** "even included some wives" thread on Ubuntu Marketing ** Linux Journal blowjob ad round 2 * September: ** LWN linked to an article about women in IT; a resulting, lengthy comment thread (content warning: cissexism and transphobia) ensued that centered around attacks on Perl developer Audrey Tang. * October: ** Puppy Linux death threats and massive resulting fail 2008 *January: Dragonborn Boobs in D&D. Immense internet argument! (Gaming) *February: An Obstacle for Women in the IT Industry blog post (Technology industry) *April: **Open Source Boob Project (Science Fiction Fandom)) **Zuckerberg interview incident (Technology industry) *May: Wiscon troll incident (Science Fiction Fandom) *July: **Debian harassment receives press coverage (FLOSS) **Planet Fedora up-skirting photo (FLOSS) **RubyFringe offers girlfriend daycare (FLOSS) **Linux Symposium 2008 closing talk (FLOSS) ** Fat Princess (Gaming) *November: **SLUG Christmas card talk (FLOSS) **SmellyWerewolf incident (Debian) (FLOSS) **Sexist joke in Diggnation Podcast (Technology industry) ** Women in Web 2.0 comments (Technology industry) *December: Valleywag insults Pownce founder (Technology industry) 2009 * February: ** Adobe talk at PHP UK (Technology industry, FLOSS) ** February 27: Scans_daily suspension (Comic Book Fandom) ** IT Security Girl of the Year (Technology industry) * March: **SLUG committee 2009 nomination dispute (FLOSS) **Marvel Female Products Launch (Comic Book Fandom) ** DrupalCon Paris website * April: CouchDB talk (FLOSS) * May: ** Della computers (Technology industry) ** CeBIT booth babes (Technology industry) * June: ** Electronic Gaming Monthly replaced with Maxim (Gaming) ** Flashbelt slide show (Technology industry) * July: ** EMACS virgins joke (FLOSS) ** DEFCON comic strip incident (Hacker culture) ** This IS your father's Readercon (Science Fiction Fandom) ** Phoronix Foodstruments (FLOSS) ** Stonehenge OSCON parties (again) (FLOSS) ** RealmsFail and resulting Harlan Ellison backlash (Science Fiction Fandom) ** Game Boy Bondage (Gaming)) ** EA booth babe bounty (Gaming) * August: ** Manthology incident (Science Fiction Fandom) ** FSF mini-summit on Women in Free Software announcement and LWN thread (FLOSS) ** SurveyFail (Media Fandom) ** Sony make phones for women (Technology industry) * September: ** Mark Shuttleworth at Linuxcon (FLOSS) ** (and ongoing) Geek feminism harassment by MikeeUSA ** Drupal og module accepts patch addressing gender binary language. * October: ** PepsiFail (Technology industry) ** Marvel halloween costumes (Comic Book Fandom) ** Yahoo! Taiwan Open Hack Day 2009 (Technology industry) ** MXUG mailing list posts (Technology industry) * November: ** AmazonLISAFail (Technology industry) ** DojoCon thongs (FLOSS) * December: ** Women underrepresented in Modern Science Writing (Science) http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2009/12/the_science_boys_club_strikes.php ** Brightkite using hot girls as bait (Technology industry) http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/11/brightkite-girls.html http://blog.brightkite.com/2009/12/04/mea-culpa/ ** CrazyDomains Pamela Anderson advertisement (Technology industry) 2010 *January **Realms of Fantasy women's issue (SF fandom) **#ubuntu-women logging proposal **Russian commentary on Ubuntu Women leadership (FLOSS) *February **Casecamp boobies incident (Technical conferences) **PUSH N900 pole-dancing robots **No women in horror http://splinister.livejournal.com/76738.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/feb/24/sexism-horror-fiction (Fandom) **Boagworld incident http://www.noupe.com/design/women-in-web-design-and-development.html *March **South By Southwest groping & harrassment http://jolieodell.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/why-sxsw-sucks/#comment-1391 http://jolieodell.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/why-sxsw-sucks/ http://jolieodell.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/why-sxsw-sucks/#comment-1442 (Technical conferences) ** Drupal.org gender discussions (FLOSS) * April ** Sexist "joke" in description of a "menstruation tracking" software package for the N900: Summary of incident (FLOSS) ** NodeOne Drupal card game ad (FLOSS) ** GenCon "Activities for the better half" icon (Roleplaying games) * May ** It's Time to Tell Mum campaign ** ASCII-Pinup-Girl @sigInt [1] * June ** Sexual assault at Southeast LinuxFest ** Groping at FOO Camp * August ** Dries Drupalcon keynote reactions (FLOSS) ** Australia Tech Ed Meter Maids (Technical conferences) ** New Zealand Open Source Society Mailing list (FLOSS) ** First Dickwolves comic at Penny Arcade ** Adrianne Curry sexually assaulted at Star Wars Celebration V. * October ** Penny Arcade announces Dickwolves tshirts; Courtney Stanton announces Dickwolves Survivors Guild tshirts in protest * November ** Noirin Shirley ApacheCon incident * December ** Julian Assange arrest (for Sexual assault) 2011 *January **In a session at BarCamp San Diego 8, @SDGameGuy (Dan Melchione) demoed a Microsoft Kinect hack in which an volunteer appeared on a simulated green screen in front of an image of a strip club. (Technical conferences) ** Sexual and violent references and images in LCA 2011 Keynote (FLOSS) ** Rape apology on LCA mailing list (FLOSS) ** Dickwolves incident reaches its peak (Gaming) * February ** ITA Software's recruitment ad (Technology industry) ** Naked Password ** Privilege denial on the Linux-Aus list * March ** FreeBSD's man page misogyny (FLOSS) ** Hive76 in Philadelphia rejects Sex Toy Hacking Presentation - relocated to the Hacktory * May ** Sexist jokes at JSConf (Technical conferences) ** Tammy Camp banned from tech conference * June ** Elevatorgate - Incident at World Atheist Convention (Atheism/Skepticism) ** Lady had all support from local group for her event removed after rejecting advances from group leader (FLOSS) - UK * July ** Why Know Algorithms talk at OSCON (Technical conferences) ** Assault at OSCON (Technical conferences) ** Heartbreak & Heroines Kickstarter campaign (Gaming) ** Male-only Battlefield 3 LAN party (Gaming) ** The beginning of Nymwars via the Google+ name policy debate (Tech industry/Social networking) * August ** Opera software blatant objectification in advertising * September ** Sqoot posts a blog article that includes a photo of a topless woman : the blog post titled "Sqoot Goes Topless" was about the company's dedication to transparency and featured an image of a topless woman. The photo only showed the area between the womans shoulders and waist. (some time between March and September 2012, it appears that Sqoot has removed the photo). ** CSconsulting posts sexist posters on college campuses * October ** Adam Bien talk at JavaOne (Technical conferences) ** Paul Burton Talk at ExpressionEngine conference (Technical conferences) ** Grainger Games, sponsors of the Games Media Awards, upsets the proceeds with scantily-clad booth babes and dwarves, and leaves condoms on the attendees' tables. (Gaming) * NovemberRethinking_Best_Practices_Talk_at_JavaOne ** Image of women spread eagled, holding a gun, with a monitor with the letter "V" covering her genitals featured on blog post by Witold Rugowski , a free-lance Ruby programmer from Poland, about passing current id to model in Ruby on Rails. It was shown on RubyReflector but was taken down soon after. The image was still on Witold's personal blog linked above. * December ** Chaos Communications Congress 28 incidents ** Harassment on rAtheism 2012 * January ** MikeeUSA harasses women FLOSS developers again. ** ConFoo was sponsored by the adult entertainment industry. * March ** The announcement for Sqoot's Boston API Jam lists women to fetch you beer amongst the "Great Perks" of attending. ** The founders of Geeklist react badly when a video that associates sexist imagery with their brand is reported to them. ** The VP of Path makes several sexist remarks during a presentation at SXSW. ** Tara Tiger Brown writes a Fake geek girls condemnation for Forbes. * April ** Melbourne coworking sexism: York Butter Factory, a Melbourne coworking space, makes a sexist tweet. ** Oatmeal comic on female gamers: Oatmeal made a comic implying "a terrible female gamer gets away with way more than a terrible male gamer". ** Mega Startup Bikinis: All-male team at Mega Startup Weekend makes presentation including gratuitous repeated image of women in bikinis. Chris Yeh, a presentation judge, speaks up and then blogs about it. ** Dell says shut up: Dell invites Mads Christensen to MC at a Dell-hosted customer and partner summit in Copenhagen in April. Christensen applauds the lack of women in IT and urges attendees to learn to say "Shut up, bitch!". * May ** Kleiner Perkins gender discrimination lawsuit: On May 10, 2012, Ellen Pao filed a gender discrimination suit against Kleiner Perkins. In the suit, she alleged that the firm has engaged in systematic discrimination against women by failing to promote them comparably to men, by compensating them less, and by failing to act upon sexual harassment complaints. ** NYT op ed on harassment: The NYTimes published an op ed on the suit that opened with the assertion that "Men invented the Internet." The article also claimed that sexual harassment is rare or nonexistent in Silicon Valley: "You don’t really hear about randiness and mistreatment of women." ** The 2012 atheist and skeptic harassment policies campaign begins, and with it, significant hostility to the idea of anti-harassment policies and the specific details of suggested policies. ** Sony releases sexist Playstation Vita ad in France * June ** On June 1, 2012, an all female singing group at the European Ruby Conference in Amsterdam were subjected to sexist abuse on Twitter. See blog post ** ASUS booth babe tweet ** Microsoft Azure Cloud Song: On June 7, 2012, Microsoft opened NDS 2012 with a song and a dance by female performer featuring lyrics ~approx"Micro and Soft are words that do not apply to my Penis", as well as mentioning names of various street drugs. YouTube video . ** Summercon Burlesque: On June 9, 2012, the SummerCon conference provided, as entertainment, female burlesque dancers. Blog post. * July ** "Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian" game is created, resulting in continuing Feminist Frequency Kickstarter backlash including harassment of Steph Guthrie who outed the game creator Ben Spurr. ** 0xB16B00B5/BIGBOOBS Constant in Microsoft Hyper-V: a Linux kernel contributor discovers that the constant used to identify a Linux Guest to the Hyper-V host is "0xB16B00B5" **A Readercon attendee reports René Walling to the RC committee. They decide to ignore their zero tolerance policy and ban the offender for two years, citing the need to educate men in how to not harass women. (They later recanted and enforced the policy.) **Geek feminist harassment at OSCON: several OSCON attendees report harassment by (self-described) members of the geek feminist community. **An offensive tweet was made against the PyLadies group at EuroPython 2012. Lynn Root (a keynote speaker and founder of PyLadies) blogged twice about the incident. **Daniel Tosh makes a series of rape jokes at the Laugh Factory **Joe Peacock writes a Fake geek girls condemnation for a CNN blog *August **Video game Borderlands 2 announces its girlfriend mode, an easy mode assumed to be for girlfriends of assumed-male-assumed-het gamers. **Twitter user MisterE2009 harasses women in comics. Comics Creator Mark Millar responds. **Dragon*Con bans Backup ribbons **Steubenville High School rape case *September **A woman was sexually assaulted during Notch (of Mojang/Minecraft fame)'s party in Seattle, the same weekend as Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). Venue security staff dismissed her complaint. **TechEd New Zealand - Groping at "Tech Fest" party. **Sponsor at the Ohio LinuxFest tries to hand out swag with sexually oriented language. *October **An Enforcer (volunteer and peace-keeper) at gaming con PAX publicly discloses that another Enforcer was removed from his role due to sexual harassment and assault of other Enforcers. http://recoveringdk.tumblr.com/post/33025553748/sexual-harassment-and-enforcers **the Libre Office en Español Facebook group posted images to promote their products with implicit reference to sexual contents *November **BritRuby 2013 is canceled after being called out on an all-white-male speaker lineup. (Commentary from Lindsey Bieda and Avdi.) *December **Chaos Communications Congress 29 incidents 2013 *January **Heavily sexualized ad for Voco voice control products emailed to CES attendees, along with sexual innuendo in public press release. (Commentary from AdRants here.) ** "Edge" conference criticised for all-male speaker lineup. Rebecca J. Rosen mentioned the conference in a call for men to boycott all-male conference panels. ** Alex Diavatis, writing for WorldOfGnome.org, wrote a post about Fedora 18 that included commentary about how Fedora 18 is easy enough for 'ugly girlfriends' to use without their boyfriends' help. The paragraph was later removed after complaints in the comments. Using girlfriend/mother to mean 'technical layman' is sexist. ** SexyPHP , a self-published book by C. A. Collins, published to Kindle via BookBaby.com ** Women in Makerspaces, the "e-textiles" post and discussion on a hackerspaces.org list. There was a very funny dramatic reading of the e-textiles post by Rory Marinich. * February ** LCA2013 shirtgate ** "Hack of the Sexes", billed as a "civic hackathon pinning the boys against the girls" as well as a "contest to promote innovative solutions to civic problems from the technology and entrepreneurship community in Kansas City", was announced. ** An event in Nashville, Tennessee in the US, "Spark Nashville", announced itself as featuring "entrepreneurial and tech community patriarchs". In an extensive thread on Twitter, Jared Scheel defended the usage of the term "patriarch" and dismissed women's concerns about it as "petty" and "legalistic". ** Web and PHP Magazine at PHP UK 2013 hands out shirts with the legend "Enhance your PHPness" on them (playing on the double entendre of PHPness/Penis), leading to an outcry of institutional sexism. Others defend it as a joke. Web and PHP Magazine issue a statement denying sexist intent. * March ** PyCon 2013 forking and dongles incident ** PyCon 2013 expulsion incident ** Shawn L's expulsion from hackerspaces ** Yvonne Brill's NYT obituary * May ** Pouet logo incident ** CONFidence 2013 assault * June ** Denver Comic Con panel ** Above the Game ** SFF harassment revelations 2013 ** Anti-Pyladies accounts on GitHub